Teaching of information security in the "Health care and nursing" postgraduate program

Abstract

Informatics plays an increasing role in the area of health care services. Not only will the patient's satisfaction with the medical treatment depend on the cooperation and communication between the nurse and the doctor, but also on the nurse and her way of dealing with and usage of IT technology. Although having become a part of daily routines in the meantime, the question arises if nurses are aware of the importance of IT technology for their work duties. How many of the nurses will have probably ever thought about the importance and sensitivity of the data they daily use? Without doubt, computer-literacy among members of all professional groups within society has increased enormously in the last years. Nevertheless, especially the area of health care service demands some more specific knowledge and awareness by the concerned staff related to topics of possibilities, benefits, possible mistakes and theirs consequences, especially from the security point of view, including the sensitivity of the working area, as well as ethical issues. The aim of this paper is to present, the postgraduate program in general as well as the actual handling of providing lectures on information security for nurses. Furthermore, the paper will focus on (gained) experience, and the formative assessment of the postgraduate program. © 2007 International Federation for Information Processing.